Activity: Public Engagement and Outreach › Media Participation
Description
Why Iranian Women Spend Big on Cosmetics: Women in Iran spend an unusually large proportion of their incomes on makeup, according to a recent report, which found that 4.5 percent of annual wages in Iran go toward cosmetics. That rate is three times what women spend in France, Germany or the United Kingdom. It's news that has the potential to reinforce all sorts of stereotypes — about oppression of women in the Middle East and the use of cosmetics as a political statement. But experts say, the reasons behind Iranian beauty trends are more complex than that, and a closer look offers a window into the culture, history and social life of Iran. The idea that Iranian women wear makeup to make a political statement against the mandatory hijab is "an oversimplified version of reality," said Aliakbar Jafari, who researches consumer culture at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.